Abstract

Miss Rawson’s book breaks new ground in carrying the story of the impact on the contemporary history and literature of Western Europe of the ideas currently held in regard to ancient Sparta, from the ancient period through the Hellenistic age, Rome, the middle ages, the Renaissance and modern periods down to the present day, including in her ambit the wide sweep of France, Germany, Italy, England, with a note on the United States of America. This is an immense task, demanding both a deep study of the classical material, fluency in all the Western European languages concerned and a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of history and literature running from ancient to modern times.